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March 16, 2018

BREB to bring all upazilas under complete power coverage by Dec

UNB

The Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board targets to ensure 100 per cent electrification in all 460 upazilas of the country by December this year.
As part of the initiative, over 100 upazilas were now ready to come under cent per cent power coverage through a function, expected to be attended by prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
‘The government is determined to supply electricity to every household and bring all the people under power coverage by 2021 at a reasonable price,’ a power, energy and mineral resources ministry official told the agency in Dhaka on Thursday.
He said that 90 per cent people in the country currently had access to electricity which had been made possible under the bold and dynamic leadership of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
According to the BREB, 36 upazilas had already been brought under electricity coverage while over 100 upazilas across the country were without full power coverage.
Highlighting the steps taken by the present government to make the country self-reliant in power production, he said the BREB was providing around four lakh electricity connections per month.
Meanwhile, the state-run rural power provider BREB brought a total of 2.15 crore consumers under electricity connections.
Earlier, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid said the government had been working relentlessly with the aim to build a ‘Sonar Bangla’ dreamt of by founding president of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
He said the BREB had targeted to bring 460 upazilas under 100 per cent electricity coverage by 2018, as it had been providing services to the rural consumers for over 38 years. It also fixed a target to bring system loss down to 11 per cent.
Nasrul Hamid said the government had increased the number of power plants, transmission lines, distribution lines and improved capacity of other sectors to foster the economic growth to become a middle income country by 2021.
The state minister said the electricity generation capacity reached 16,046 MW from 4,942 MW in 2009, adding, ‘Some 47 power plants with the capacity to generate 13,771 MW of electricity were now under construction. In 2009, per capita electricity generation was 222 kWh, which had been raised to 433 kWh.’
The government installed additional 85 power plants and constructed 1.74 lakh kilometres distribution line since 2009, the state minister said.